...it's our hope that our volumes—most with
new introductions by poets of today—will make it easier for new readers
and old to find their way into these extraordinary books. Due to the
unique power of the form, most of these works seem to acquire an even
greater resonance as time passes. It may just be that the impact of deeply felt, finely wrought language is even more intense in a less literate age.

April 03, 2007

Time to launch into what I’ve taken to calling ‘the crown jewel’ of this poetry blog: new recordings from FSG’s poets!

A little background: all of our poets were invited to select one poem of their own and one from a backlist FSG poet, and then to come into the studio to record both, with a few words of introduction for each poem. And that’s all the direction they had—which has made for some really raucous and enjoyable recordings, all of which I'll be posting in the next month. I like listening to see if I can discern links between the two poems. Sometimes it’s immediately apparent, and sometimes it takes a bit more digging to discover.

I wanted to kick these off with a bang, so I thought we’d begin with Seamus Heaney reading 'The Thought-Fox' by Ted Hughes (which is the source for this post's title) and his own poem, 'Postscript.' Seamus Heaney, of course, can probably be most accurately described as the U2 of the poetry world—with nearly every prize under his belt that you can collect, including the Nobel, he’s become a literary juggernaut while remaining a critical darling (although, luckily, his taste in glasses is much better than Bono's).

I’ll let Heaney describe these poems to you in his own words. Enjoy! Follow the directions in the post below if you'd like to subscribe to our podcasts, or click on the button to the right to subscribe via iTunes. And if you find yourself wanting to buy copies of Heaney's latest book, District and Circle, or Hughes' massive and wonderful Collected Poems, places to buyarelinkedhere.